Alexa blog, DomainSuperstar Claim Blogging Doesn’t Pay. They Are Wrong!

Posted on November 26th, 2009 by admin in Domain Development, Domain News | 4 Comments »

In April this year Alexa.com blogger Geoffrey Mack stated on the Alexa.com blog that blogging won’t earn you any money worth writing home about.

In his post, using complete tunnel vision, Geoffrey based his whole bogus theory around some stats obtained from an article from eMarketer and some stats from a Pubmatic report.

Geoffrey went on to say that according to stats obtained from the above mentioned references, bloggers would count themselves lucky if they earned $0.61 per 1000 page views per ad on their blogs from advertising – which equates to $2.50 per 1000 page views with 4 ad placements.

Following on from there, Geoffrey stated that according to his references, the popular GigaOM.com blog – with a monthly page view count of some 1,000,000 (1 million) page views – earned a measly $2,500 from advertising, thus concluding his view that blogging simply does not pay.

If Geoffrey wrote this in April, why am I blogging about this now?

I am blogging in response to Joel Ohman’s post over at DomainSuperstar.com that appeared on my radar today where Joel basically reiterated Geoffrey’s bogus theory in slightly less direct words.

Now, let me state at the get-go that I have nothing against Joel. I have not had the pleasure of meeting the guy nor have I had any business interactions with him. This post is simply a reply to the claims by Geoffrey and now Joel that blogging won’t make you much money.

Joel starts off his post by saying the following:

If you think that you can make money blogging by just working a few hours a day in your underwear while the cash just starts to pour in then guess what? You guessed it – it ain’t gonna happen.

I am sorry Joel but I am writing this post in my underwear from my home office as we speak. Yes, it takes more then just a few hours to run all my online business ventures, but the blogging part takes no more then 30 minutes per post per day – if in fact I actually happen to be writing all my posts. I am at a stage now where I don’t write the content for all my blogs but there was a time when I did and it wasn’t rocket science then either.

Joel then goes on to say the following:

I would never ever rely on blogging to make anywhere near the amount of money that can be made by developing a “real” website.

Why?

Do you really believe the crap Geoffrey wrote about blogs making people $0.61 per 1000 page impressions per ad?

An ad that is currently (as in right now) making me $10 per 1000 page impressions from a legitimate advertiser via a legitimate ad platform is right here in this post.

On top of the $10 per 1000 impressions for this particular ad, this particular domain name blog makes lots more money from monthly sales of ads to other companies interested in exposure to the domaining industry crowd.

On top of the ad sales DNXpert brings in every month, DNXpert earns an equivalent amount plus some from affiliates sales from the various affiliate programs we promote through the blog.

A blog is not a “real” website?

What is a “real” website in this day and age anyways?

People have argued and argued over whether sites or blogs are the way to go.

I believe it should be a more of a “horses for courses” approach.

If your domain name/project idea is structured around daily news, opinions & ideas, what’s more “real” then a blogging approach? On the other hand if you want to run a social website or a forum, a blog won’t do you much good. The same goes for sales or email capture pages.

With Wordpress, the distinction between blog and website is even murkier. People are using Wordpress as a CMS. Personally, unless I am developing something really specific like a social CMS or forum, I use Wordpress for all my websites. With BuddyPress, Wordpress is even covering the social CMS scene – it just needs a bit more work.

Joel finally says that even though Problogger and Shoemoney make good money, “blogging is perhaps not the best way to make money”.

Again, I have to strongly disagree!

TechCrunch, Mashable, Engadget, PerezHilton etc etc, these are all in fact blogs that make tonnes of money. But, let’s disregard the high earners/already made it/success story blogs.

By running a blog you, me or anyone else just starting out get a whole bunch of advantages which help you make money in both the long run and immediately.

1. You build a personal relationship with your readership. People that trust you will trust your recommendations.

2. You build contacts, you gain subscribers to your mailing lists, you gain subscribers to your RSS – thus multiplying your reach in your industry. Even Joel at DomainSponsor.com uses his blog to promote his domain tools – it’s only natural.

3. You network with people from your industry – people of influence and people with their own reach within the industry – a reach you can leverage to reach a larger audience when necessary.

4. You sell advertising to companies from the industry who wish to get exposure to their target audience through your blog.

5. You sell affiliate products and earn commissions by promoting products which you believe will be of benefit to your readership.

So, finally, Geoffrey, Joel, and anyone else. Please, stop saying blogging is not a top money earner. I, for one, strongly disagree with you.